Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Crisis Unleashes More Sale Leasebacks

PropertyEU - February 23, 2009

Europe's sale-and-leaseback market looks set to reach an historic peak this year as occupiers increasingly look to property sales to fund their core business. With lenders keeping a tight rein on credit, corporates are being forced to look for alternative sources of financing and real estate sales are high on every boardroom agenda, says John Wilson, head of EMEA Corporate Strategies at CBRE.

Wilson: 'We have never seen so much interest from the corporate community as today. The requests we are receiving from big corporations and financial institutions are two or three times the amount we saw last year. We are currently working on about EUR 3 bn worth of deals. But the key question is: how much equity is out there?'

The sale-and-leaseback market has grown strongly in Europe over the past years, reaching EUR 46 bn in 2007 from just EUR 6.7 bn three years earlier. While investment volume slumped by 50% in 2008, occupier sales remained an important source of activity, accounting for EUR 22.2 bn worth of deals. In absolute terms, this is down on 2007's volumes but in line with the drop in transactional activity across Europe. Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Emmelunga Enters EUR 50 Million Sale Leaseback of Five Furniture Stores in Italy

PropertyEU - January 9, 2008

Italy's furniture store chain Emmelunga has sold five of its stores in a sale-and-lease back deal with Mercurio Retail Properties for around EUR 50 mln. The stores, which are located in Italy's Tuscany and Lazio regions, represent the first acquisition made by Mercurio Retail Properties, a fund managed by CB Richard Ellis Investors. The fund is dedicated to institutional investors and is invested by Natixis' Captiva Capital Partners III.

Law firm Freshfields advised Natixis; Vichi Salesia Fagiolini & Associates acted for Emmelunga. Sphere: Related Content

Arcandor Enters €4.56 Billion Sale Leaseback of German Highstreet Department Store Portfolio

PropertyEU - March 19, 2008

A consortium of Deutsche Bank's RREEF funds, Milan-based Pirelli Real Estate, Generali and the Borletti Group has signed a binding agreement with Arcandor (former KarstadtQuelle) to acquire a 49% stake in Arcandor's Highstreet portfolio. Goldman Sachs' Whitehall Funds retains its remaining 51% interest in the German department store portfolio.

Italian insurance giant Generali has joined the RREEF-led consortium and has a 22.34% stake in the investment via its SICAV fund, Generali Real Estate Fund (GREF). Pirelli RE has a 24.66% share of the investment, while RREEF has approximately 49% and Borletti around 4%. Market rumours said that the consortium is paying more than €500mln in cash for Highstreet, but the price could be adjusted with the closing of the deal expected by the end of May. The consortium is also assuming €3.5 bn of debt secured against Highstreet’s properties.

The transaction values the entire portfolio, consisting of 164 properties and a total leasable area of 2.1 million m2, at €4.56bn. The consortium has also signed a binding agreement with Whitehall for a joint control and joint management of Highstreet. Pirelli RE will act as asset manager for the portfolio, jointly with Whitehall. The transaction is subject to regulatory and antitrust approval, as well as obtaining consent from existing lenders in connection with the change of control of the borrowers.

In a separate statement, Arcandor said that the total value of the Highstreet deal and a separate contractual agreement with the previous joint venture partner Whitehall comes to about €800mln. The Essen-based company will lease back the properties from the new owners.

Arcandor set up the Highstreet investment company two years ago and sold a majority stake to Goldman Sachs for a cash payment of €3.7bn. In December it announced it had signed a letter of intent with the RREEF-led consortium regarding the sale of the portfolio. The German retail group also said it was working together with joint venture 'to create a unique European department store portfolio'. Arcandor added it was seeking to buy a stake of up to 25% of the Italian department store chains La Rinascente and the French Printemps, in exchange for a 25% interest in its premium segment to be transferred to the consortium. Sphere: Related Content

Fletcher Seeks Sale Leasback of 23 Hotels in the Netherlands

PropertyEU - February 29, 2008

Fletcher Hotel Group, a subsidiary of the Hotel Management Group, said on Friday it has hired UK broker HVS Hodges Ward Elliot for the sale of its two and three-star hotel portfolio in the Netherlands. Fletcher, based in Vianen, said it plans to sell 23 of the 28 hotels it owns in the country through a sale-and-lease-back deal.

The group said that the move is aimed at funding its expansion strategy. Over the last four years, Fletcher has boosted its turnover by 40% thanks to 'autonomous growth and M&A activities'. The hotel chain is targeting a portfolio of 50 hotels in the Netherlands.

The portfolio comprises well-known assets such as Hotel Duinoord in Wassenaaar, De Malle Jan in Vierhouten, Hotel Erica in Berg en Dal and the largest hotel in Waddeneilanden, d’Amelander Kaap. Fletcher plans to lease back the hotels for a total EUR 7 mln per year.

London-based services firm HVS Hodges Ward Elliot has acted in several transactions in the Netherlands such as the sale of the SAS Radisson Hotel at Schiphol, and the Holiday Inn in Eindhoven. Sphere: Related Content

German State of Hesse Resumes EUR 400 Million Sale Leaseback of 35 Public Buildings

PropertyEU - July 7, 2008

The German state of Hesse is putting the Leo III property portfolio back on the market, Minister of Finance Karlheinz Weimar (CDU) told newspaper Financial Times Deutschland (FTD). Weimar said that the sale process has been resumed and that a deal is expected by the end of 2008. The German state aims to fetch about EUR 400mln for the portfolio, which consists of 35 public buildings. According to the FTD, the assets generate a net rent of about EUR 25mln. HSH Real Estate and Atisreal have been appointed to market the portfolio.

The German state initially put the assets on the market last year, but eventually halted attempts to arrange a sale and leaseback of the portfolio because the ongoing turbulence in the financial markets had left potential buyers unwilling or unable to meet the asking price of around EUR 400mln.

In November 2006, Austrian real estate company CA Immo acquired the Leo II portfolio from Hesse for about EUR 770mln in a sale-and-leaseback operation. The portfolio comprised 36 state-owned properties and 170 homes. Sphere: Related Content

Net Leased Travelodge Hotel In London Trades at 6% Yield

Property Week - February 20, 2008

A consortium of private investors this week bought a Travelodge hotel in the City of London with 70% leverage.

The consortium of around 10 wealthy investors – seven of which are east African and three of which are UK based – was led by investment manager Aprirose Real Estate. It paid around £25m to Lenta Properties for the 45,000 sq ft, 190-bedroom hotel near Tower Hill at Lloyds Court in the City, which is let to Travelodge on a 35-year lease with upward-only rental increases lined to the Retail Prices Index.

Aprirose managed to secure 69.3% senior debt funding at an undisclosed rate for the purchase from a bank, thought to be Abbey, for the former office building on the back of the strength of Travelodge as a long-term covenant.

Manish Gudka, head of Aprirose, said: ‘We are led by what our investors want, and right now capital protection is the name of the game, so we are very much covenant-driven. ‘Our investors like long leases, guaranteed uplifts and strong covenants – and that is the model that this Travelodge fits. The fundamentals of the property, in terms of customer demand and the location, are strong,’ he said.

Mark Bruce-Lockhart, director at Phillips Lockhart, the agent acting for Aprirose, attributed the low 6% yield to the perceived resilience of the budget hotel sector in the downturn: ‘There are not many 35-year unbroken streams in central London, which pushed the yield down. The banks really liked this deal because it was long dated.

‘It shows that there is demand for the secure, long-dated income, purely because people are growing fed up with not earning any interest in the bank. ‘We are finding surprisingly good demand for small recession-resilient covenants like Tesco Express, Aldi and Lidl2, which Travelodge falls into.’

Contracts were exchanged before Christmas, but the deal did not complete until last week.

Lenta Properties was represented by Storeys:ssp. Sphere: Related Content

BBVA Nearing EUR 1 Billion Sale Leaseback of Properties Across Spain

Property Week - February 20, 2009

RREEF is close to sealing a €1bn purchase and leaseback of some of Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria’s (BBVA) property assets

It is thought the global fund manager is in advanced talks with BBVA to buy a portfolio of retail bank branches and offices across Spain. The bank would lease the properties back on a range of leases of more than 15 years.

BBVA instructed CB Richard Ellis last year to market its property assets to raise around €2bn.

Around 1,288 retail branches and 30 office buildings are among the property assets. BBVA has split the portfolio to attract a wider range of investors and has agreed to lease the properties on a range of terms between 25 years and 40 years.

It is thought that RREEF has cherry picked several assets in which it is interested and is discussing the possible structure for the deal. Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Adidas AG Completes Sale Leaseback of Reebok-CCM’s HQ in Montréal

Jones Lang Lasalle Web Site - January, 2009

Jones Lang LaSalle Real Estate Services, on behalf of adidas AG, is pleased to announce the successful completion of a 15 year sale leaseback of the 475,000 s.f. worldwide headquarters and global distribution center of Reebok-CCM Hockey. This state of the art distribution facility located in Ville St. Laurent, Montréal, Québec, Canada was constructed in 2006 as a mixed industrial and office space building. The property sits on over 885,000 s.f. of land and boasts 71,512 s.f. of office and showroom space, and an impressive 402,951 s.f. of warehousing area at a clear height of 33.5 ft.

The property is 100% leased to Reebok-CCM for 15 years, on an absolute net lease basis.

Adidas AG, the world’s second largest sporting goods company, whose global portfolio encompasses distribution, office and retail space, has already appointed Jones Lang LaSalle on over 50 projects worldwide involving transaction management, property development, capital markets and lease administration.

John Faratro, Senior Vice President, Jones Lang LaSalle says, “our strong track record in Industrial Services and ability to deliver key expertise through our established network of local markets was integral to a successful disposition.” Sphere: Related Content

BBVA Completes €82 Million Sale Leaseback of Madrid HQ

Property Week - February 13, 2009

Deka has bought the Madrid headquarters of Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) for around €82m in a purchase and leaseback. The German open-ended fund manager is thought to have agreed to lease the building back to the bank for 15 years. The rent has not been disclosed.

The sale is part of a wider disposal of assets by BBVA. Last year it instructed CB Richard Ellis to advise on raising around €2bn through sale and leasebacks. It is thought to have assembled two main portfolios comprising around 1,288 retail branches and 30 office buildings respectively. It split the portfolio to attract a wider range of investors and has agreed to lease the properties on a range of terms between 25 years and 40 years.

In the last six months of 2008, nearly €4bn of Spanish bank properties were put up for sale and leasebacks.

Colliers International advised Deka. All parties declined to comment. Sphere: Related Content

Coates Seeking $15 Million Sale Leaseback of Seven Shops in West Australia

The West Australian - February 13,2009

The owners of Australia’s biggest equipment hire group, Coates Hire, are auctioning seven WA sites next month in the hope of reaping more than $15 million.

The Carlyle Group and Kerry Stokes’ National Hire Group, which bought out Coates Hire a year ago, are selling land in regional and metropolitan WA with properties in Kwinana, Port Hedland, Kalgoorlie, Newman, Tom Price, Kambalda and Collie.

Each of the properties will be leased back by Coates Hire on a 12-year lease, for rents ranging from $35,000 to $580,000 a year.

Colliers International industrial and commercial sales and leasing executive Greg O’Meara, who is handling the portfolio, said the sale was an opportunity for smaller investors to buy an industrial investment, in some cases for $300,000 to $400,000, with a blue-chip national tenant.

The three biggest properties, in Kwinana, Port Hedland and Kalgoorlie, would appeal to investors in the $5 million to $7 million range.

“The strength of the offering is the strong tenant,” Mr O’Meara said. “The properties by and large are in good industrial locations, in mining towns for the most part, and provide good cash flows. People are buying an income stream but they are also buying a piece of real estate. Self-funded retirees who have been hit by market uncertainty in recent months can look at getting an excellent return on their money.”

The seven properties will be auctioned on March 11. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Mitchells & Butlers Completes £30 Million Sale Leaseback of HQ & Hotel in Birmingham

PropertyEU - February 9, 2009

London-based fund manager Moorfield Group has concluded a £30 mln (EUR 33.5 mln) sale-and-leaseback with leisure group Mitchells & Butlers for its 95,000 sq ft (8,826 m2) head office and adjoining 120-room hotel in Birmingham.

Moorfield has purchased the buildings for its Moorfield Real Estate Fund II which raised £400 mln of private equity on closing at the end of 2007. MREF II is backed principally by US endowment and foundation funds and European pension funds.

The hotel and office are on Fleet Street in Birmingham and the hotel is an Express by Holiday Inn. Both have been leased back to Mitchells & Butlers.

Colliers CRE acted for Mitchells & Butlers and Savills acted for Moorfield. Sphere: Related Content

Monday, February 02, 2009

DHL Enters EUR 30 Million Sale Leaseback of Three Logistics Properties in Belgium

PropertyEU - January 30, 2009

Warehousing group WDP has expanded its Belgian portfolio with the acquisition of three logistics sites from DHL's parent company Deutsche Post for a total of nearly EUR 30 mln. The all-share transaction reflects a gross yield of 8.7%. The sites, with a total area of 85,000 m2, will be leased back by DHL, WDP said on Thursday.

The transaction will take the form of a merger and three partial de-mergers whereby WDP will issue shares for an amount of nearly EUR 22 mln and will be transferred debt of EUR 8 mln. The deal is due for completion in the first quarter of 2009.

The assets consist of the Belgian 33,000 m2 head office of DHL Exel Supply Chain in Mechelen, a site of 33,923 m2 leased with a five- to nine-year contract and a 19,000 m2 site in Meer. The total rent amounts to EUR 2.7 mln per year. Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Home Depot Completes $59.2 Million Sale Leaseback of Two Distribution Centers

CoStar Group - January 27, 2009

Home Depot sold two distribution centers in Alabama and Georgia to The Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. Inc. for $59.2 million, or approximately $45 per square foot. The Atlanta-based home improvement retailer also leased back the nearly 1.32 million square feet in industrial space for 18 years.

Inland said the buildings, known as rapid deployment centers, are key hubs in Home Depot’s supply chain.

The one-year-old facilities each measure 657,600 square feet. The first is at 6400 Jefferson Metropolitan Parkway in McCalla, AL, about 20 miles southwest of Birmingham. The second one is just outside of Valdosta, GA, at 6201 Peterson Road in Lake Park. It’s nearly five miles from the Florida state line and about two hours northeast of Tallahassee.

CB Richard Ellis represented Home Depot. Inland used in-house representation. Sphere: Related Content

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